Today, the U.S. average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is 28.5 cents a gallon higher than it was a year ago, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. In California today, prices are 34.1 cents a gallon higher than those of last year. But if the Martin Luther King Jr.holiday is any guide, the fuel bite today won't be any worse on American wallets than it was last year. What gives? The reason is that U.S. drivers will burn about 36 million fewer gallons of gasoline today than they did last year, when they were bought about 370 million gallons, according to the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS)

Problems at some of the state's fuel refineries have sent gasoline prices soaring in California just in time for the kickoff of the busy driving season. A gallon of regular gasoline hit a statewide average of $4.196 on Thursday, up about 13 cents in a week, according to AAA. That's the highest price since March 2013. If gas prices keep surging, David Buzzo plans to cut down on dinners out and impulse purchases. Buzzo, a supervisor of field services for Southern California Edison, said he's always conscious of every uptick in price when filling up. "That takes away other money, luxury money," the 59-year-old Hollywood resident said.

Retail gasoline prices in California are rising for the first time in nine weeks, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The national average also rose modestly over the past week. In California, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.716, up 0.8 cent since last Monday. Just a month ago, the state's average was 29.7 cents a gallon higher. California prices are also 8.2 cents a gallon below the 2011 amount. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose by 1.4 cents since last Monday to $3.396 a gallon, the AAA said.

For the first time in months, most Californians are shelling out more than $4 for a gallon of regular gasoline. And with the busy summer driving season ahead, prices are likely to move even higher, fuel analysts said. It's a rite of spring as predictable as warmer weather or blooming flowers: Gasoline prices are edging up. A gallon of regular gasoline Thursday cost an average of $3.99 in the Golden State, the highest since September 2013, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge report.

Gasoline prices have risen at an unprecedented pace this year, pushing the average pump price in San Francisco and a few other California towns past the $3 mark for regular gas. In Southern California, many filling stations also have passed that benchmark. With fuel costs soaring still faster in other parts of the U.S. -- a fresh Energy Department survey today will show just how fast -- experts say the surge could knock the wheels off an economic recovery before it even gets underway.

Gasoline prices will average a penny a gallon less this year than last and should drop 4 more cents a gallon in 1986, the government predicted today. The Energy Department said the decline is expected because of lower prices for crude oil and despite a probable increase of about 2 cents a gallon in production costs tied to government orders to reduce the lead content of gasoline.

California motorists could see the state's average price for a gallon of regular gasoline fall to $2.75 or lower in the coming weeks as the nation's refineries closed out the summer driving season without serious problems and forecasters rolled back their projections of a harsher-than-normal hurricane season. The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in California fell 8.8 cents to $3.

Re "It's the Gas, Gas, Gas," March 22. It's very interesting that when the price of gas goes up, ridership goes up also on Metrolink. Maybe that is one reason that in Europe, where the gas price is very high all the time, public transportation is used extensively. Now, if our public officials would stop bickering about what do do with the tracks and right of way from North Hollywood down Chandler Boulevard, past Valley College, Pierce College, near Topanga Plaza and numerous industries and ending up in Chatsworth, we could have a wonderful light rail operation that would help the public greatly in getting to work or going shopping.

The pain at the pump intensified for the 11th week in a row, the Energy Department said Monday, with California's average price for self-serve regular gasoline rising 5.3 cents to $3.305 a gallon and the U.S. average jumping 7.4 cents to $2.876 a gallon during the last week. Refinery problems continued to get most of the blame from analysts for the fuel-cost increase. Valero Energy Corp., for example, said it was restarting its 170,000-barrel-per-day McKee refinery in Sunray, Texas.

Average gasoline prices rose during the last week, topping $3 a gallon in California, the Energy Department said Monday. But the sharp run-up is ending, analysts said, as wholesale fuel costs have declined and oil futures have retreated to their lowest level in three weeks. The average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California climbed 2.6 cents to $3.005 and is up $1.195, or more than 66%, since the end of 2008, the Energy Department said, based on a weekly survey of filling stations.

Gasoline prices in California are on their way back to $4 a gallon. California refinery outages have prompted an increase in wholesale gasoline prices that is now being felt by drivers at the pump, the Automobile Club of Southern California reported. The state average was $3.958 a gallon for regular Thursday - 11.7 cents higher than last week, AAA reported. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach region, the average price of self-serve gasoline is $3.994 a gallon, 11.7 cents higher than last week, but 18 cents lower than this time last year.

Gasoline prices are only slightly below levels set in 2011 and 2012, according to Energy Department statistics. But even a relatively small decline is enough to dent the used car auction prices of hybrid vehicles and the retained value of electric vehicles. That's the conclusion of the latest Kelley Blue Book Used-Car Market Report for May. As usual, the KBB analysis looks at the prices used car dealerships are paying at auctions to stock their inventories. Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, said in an interview there is usually a close correlation between dealer auction prices and the sticker prices buyers will see at used car sales lots.

Summer is coming. The long Memorial Day weekend is just two weeks away and, of course, average gasoline prices in California are back up above $4 a gallon. On Friday, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline in California was $4.062, up 7.6 cents since last week, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. You can round up the usual suspects: Refineries say their supplies are tight. PHOTOS: Top 10 cars with lowest sticker price per mpg In fact, some analysts, such as Patrick DeHaan of GasBuddy.com, said that "tight gasoline supply exists especially along the West Coast.

Summer gasoline prices will be lower in the U.S. than they were last year. But they won't be much lower, experts say, because U.S. refineries have been exporting record amounts of fuel overseas. That's behind what would normally just be a good news story for U.S. drivers. U.S. production of its own crude oil is booming at such a rate that it is expected to reach 8.2 million barrels a day in 2014 for the first time since 1988, the Energy Department says. That was back when the first George Bush was elected president.

Ford Motor Co. will offer a $25,000 first prize for whoever makes the best phone app for fuel efficiency. The Ford Personalized Efficiency Challenge runs through July 24. Anyone entering has to work through the automaker's OpenXC research platform. Ford describes OpenXC as "an open-source hardware and software platform developed by Ford Research and Innovation to unleash the power of the open-source hacker community. " PHOTOS: Top 10 cars with lowest sticker price per mpg Ford isn't the first automaker to try to tap into the drive to improve mileage or go green.

California's strict low-carbon fuel standard could help reduce gasoline prices in the state, the opposite of what many have predicted, by encouraging the use of a relatively cheap and relatively clean U.S. crude oil, some experts now say. The standard will require fuel producers -- like refineries -- to lower the carbon intensity of the products they sell here by 10% by 2010 in less than seven years. To comply, California refineries might also have to stop using some of the crude oil they use now. That includes some oil that comes from California that is considered too dirty, from a carbon intensity standpoint.

The average retail price of a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. continued to rise overnight while the price in California dropped by such a small amount that virtually no one will notice. Three more states joined the $4 a gallon club, bringing the total to six, and U.S. fuel experts continued at a record high pace. Across the U.S., the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline rose another 4.1 cents since last week and 0.4 cents overnight to $3.842 a gallon. That's according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

Experts are saying American drivers, including Californians, can expect some of the lowest summer gasoline prices they have seen in three years. Some are predicting a steady decline in California gasoline prices to as low as $3.84 a gallon by August. This year, the Energy Department is expecting a national summertime average of about $3.63 for a gallon of regular gasoline. That would be the lowest in three years, down six cents from $3.69 a gallon a year ago and off 8 cents from the $3.71 average in 2011.

The drop in gasoline prices in California that began more than a month ago has slowed to a crawl, but there may be good news ahead when one of the state's most important refineries returns to full production as early as this month. When operating at its full 245,000-barrel-a-day capacity, Chevron Corp.'s Richmond refinery is the second most productive in the state. But it has been operating at lower levels since a fire idled part of the facility in August. Analysts at the Oil Price Information Service said the refinery could be back at full operation as early as this month.